Sungjae Im Faces 'PO Champ' Cantlay in Group Stage... Which Is the 'Group of Death'?

Im Sung-jae is playing a practice round ahead of the Dell Technologies Match Play. Austin, USA=Getty Images/Multibits

[Asia Economy Kim Hyun-jun, Golf Specialist Reporter] "Defeat the Playoff (PO) Champion."

It is the mission of ‘21st seed’ Im Sung-jae (24) to advance to the round of 16. On the night of the 23rd (Korean time), the World Golf Championships (WGC) Series Dell Technologies Match Play (total prize money $12 million), which kicks off at Austin Golf Club in Texas, USA (par 71, 7,108 yards), is the largest-scale match play event in the global golf world. Sixty-four players are divided into 16 groups, and like the World Cup soccer, after three preliminary rounds, the top player from each group competes again in a ‘survival game’ starting from the round of 16.

Im Sung-jae is placed in Group 4 along with world No. 4 Patrick Cantlay, No. 48 Seamus Power (Ireland), and No. 71 Keith Mitchell (USA). For now, it looks like he will be competing with Cantlay for first place in the group. It is interesting that Cantlay was last year’s 4-win champion. In October 2020 at the Zozo Championship, June 2021 at the Memorial Tournament, the ‘PO second round’ BMW Championship in August, and the ‘PO final third round’ Tour Championship in September, he hit a ‘$15 million (1.82 billion KRW) jackpot.’

Im Sung-jae also secured an early win last October at the Shriners Open, which counts toward the 2022 season, and with four top-10 finishes in 12 tournaments, he proudly secured 8th place in the PO rankings. This is why experts have ranked him as the ‘12th favorite to win.’ Match play is especially prone to upsets. In fact, all four players who reached the semifinals last year were ranked outside the top 30. Considering that only top-ranked players participate, complacency in all three matches is strictly forbidden.

‘48th seed’ Kim Si-woo (27) faces a tough challenge to pass the preliminaries. His first opponent on the 24th is ‘17th seed’ Daniel Berger (USA), who experts regard as the ‘second favorite to win’ and is particularly strong in match play. The ‘13th seed’ Tyrrell Hatton (England) is involved in a chaotic and noisy match. ‘52nd seed’ Christiaan Bezuidenhout (South Africa), who mainly competes on the DP World Tour (European Tour), is an opponent that must be defeated.

Along with Kim Si-woo’s Group 13, Group 6, which includes ‘6th seed’ Justin Thomas and Kevin Kisner, has emerged as the ‘group of death.’ ‘29th seed’ Kisner is a player specialized in match play, having been runner-up in 2018 and champion in 2019. ‘53rd seed’ Luke List (USA) is a dark horse. He earned his first PGA Tour win after 203 events over 10 years in a playoff at the Farmers Open last January. ‘37th seed’ Mark Leishman (Australia) has joined this group.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.